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Climate change endangers half the world’s groundwater supply

Climate change endangers half the world’s groundwater supply

Climate change today will effect the water supply for hundreds—possibly thousands—of years. Humans exist on a short leash. A person can only last around three days without drinking water. Put that way, human life is absurdly fragile; plenty of other organisms can go far longer. Just think of your houseplant. To make matters more precarious, that essential substance is growing harder to come by. You’ve heard about this: climate change … [more…]

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$3 billion problem: Miami-Dade’s septic tanks are already failing due to sea rise

photo: 2016 king tides in Miami-Dade County

Photo: A Miami-Dade neighborhood that relies on septic tanks experiences flooding during the 2016 King Tide. A new report commissioned by the county shows that half of the county’s septic tanks break down yearly, a problem that sea level rise will worsen. MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

Miami-Dade has tens of thousands of septic tanks, and a new report reveals most are already malfunctioning — the smelly and unhealthy evidence of which often … [more…]

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Stanford study: changing scope of Native American groundwater rights

Aerial photo: California's Coachella Valley

Local water agencies have pumped so much water from aquifers to supply homes, farmland and resorts in the Coachella Valley that the land is sinking. The Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, created in 1876, runs in a checkerboard pattern in the area of Palm Springs. (Image credit: Tim Roberts Photography / Shutterstock)

Stanford researchers map out groundwater at stake in the wake of a court decision that bolsters Native American rights

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Harvard Reportedly Buying Up California’s Vineyards—and Their Water Rights

photo:vineyard in California, where Harvard is buying wineries and their water rights.

Harvard University’s endowment is reportedly buying up vineyards in California’s wine country, along with the water rights belonging to those properties.

Instead of making the land purchases in its own name, Harvard is using a wholly owned subsidiary—named Brodiaea after the scientific name for the cluster lily —to buy vineyards. Harvard created Brodiaea in 2012, and by 2015 the unit had already purchased 10,000 acres in Santa Barbara and San … [more…]

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Petition against spraying herbicide to be heard by FWC

photo: spraying herbicide into open waters

Special to the Lake Okeechobee News/Courtesy of James Abernethy. FWC employs private contractors at a cost of millions of dollars a year in Florida to spray waterbodies in an effort to control invasive hydrilla.

Advocates of clean water in Florida are jumping on a bandwagon that started rolling late last summer when marine life expert Jim Abernethy of West Palm Beach started a Change.org petition calling for the Florida Fish … [more…]